MBTA Blue Line trains move from four cars to six cars

All trains on the Blue Line
rapid transit line from Boston to Revere, Mass., have been upgraded from four
to six cars, enabling the "T" to carry more passengers. The
transition began and was completed this fall.

"With little fanfare,
the Blue Line made the transition to all six-car trains at all hours of the day
and night," said Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority spokesman Joseph
Pesaturo. "The last of the old, unreliable cars were removed from service
and now customers are served only by the new fleet of 94 cars."

The transition to all
six-car trains came just as the modernization and accessibility project at
Maverick Station was completed, he said.

According to Pesaturo, all
of the old four-car trains have been replaced with the new six-car trains,
which increases rider capacity by 50 percent. In September, the last month for
which the MBTA has complete data, the Blue Line's on-time performance rate was
95 percent - its highest in 18 months.

Federal, state and Lynn
officials have been working on a plan that would extend the Blue Line from its
present terminus at Wonderland Station in Revere to the central train station
on Market Street in downtown Lynn. Several studies have been completed but the
project was most recently fouled when Revere officials allowed residents to
occupy an apartment building constructed along the right-of-way for the track
extension.

The plan must be revised so
that the tracks can follow a path across part of Rumney Marsh, which could
require additional environmental impact studies.